


Strong and Full of Life

by Ravenclaw_333



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Langst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Romance, thunderstorm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 17:02:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14193558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenclaw_333/pseuds/Ravenclaw_333
Summary: Keith slides on his knees, when he was close enough to Lance, ignoring the mud that covers his suit and hands. The smell of burnt flesh and hair hung in the air around Lance, making Keith panic.





	Strong and Full of Life

Music filled the observing room, as Keith and Lance slowly swayed in each other’s arms.

There was no special occasion for them to be dancing, Lance just burst in the room with an iPod type of device and demanded that they dance. It turns out, Pidge was some how able to download some music from Earth and gave it to Lance to try for a while, just for him to leave her alone.

Lance has one hand rested on the side of Keith’s neck and the other between them holding on to one of Keith’s hands. Keith’s arm loosely wraps under Lance’s armpit to his spin. They lean against the other’s temple with eyes closed, as the music makes them get lost.

“This is nice, I-we needed this after yesterdays battle with the Galra.” Keith quietly whispers into Lance’s ear, earning an ‘mhmm’ from Lance’s closed mouth. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m glad you annoyed Pidge long enough to get that music devise.”

Lance opens his eyes and moves his head back to look at Keith. “Just remember, I do this kind of stuff for you. Only you, so basically you annoyed Pidge too.”

Keith just looks at his with a straight face, getting a wide smile from Lance in return.

“Just remember, I’m not going to help you when she burst into our room and attacks you when you sleep because you didn’t return something of hers.” Keith smiles back at Lance, when Lance glares at him.

“That was one time! I could have died!” Lance throws his arms in the air and turns away from Keith, before crossing his arms. Keith just laughs at him and wraps him arms around Lance’s shoulders.

“But did you?”

Lance turns around in his arms and wraps his own arms around Keith’s waist. “No, I didn’t. But you would be sad if I did, just remember that.” Keith buries his face in Lance’s shoulder, not saying anything.

Joking about that death is a touchy subject for anyone, but for Keith it means so much more and Lance sometimes forgets that himself. “Keith, come on, I was just kidding.” Lance leans back slightly to get Keith to look at him. “I’m sorry, I really am.” Keith glances up to look into his eyes and half smiles, making the mood lighten up a bit.

They smile at each other for a moment before Lance brings him thumb to Keith’s bottom lip. He moves it back and forth, looking at Keith’s eyes for permission for a kiss. Keith nods his head slightly, then Lance moves his hand back to the side of Keith’s neck, before their lips meet in the middle.

They stay wrapped in each other’s embrace, the music coming back to life, as they go in for quick pecks, smiling in the kisses. The moment was perfect and very much needed, until Allura’s voice comes over the speakers.

“Attention paladins, we are nearing the planet of Howton to check out for any source of life. Suit up and go to your lions. Also, the planet seems to have thick clouds that cover the ground, so don’t go too fast when entering the atmosphere.”

Keith and Lance look at each other for a moment and share a kiss for good luck, before heading to their lions.

**-10 MINUTES LATER-**

The team is in their lions, about to enter Howton’s atmosphere.

“Okay, we should all stay together in case the clouds are thicker then they look, we need to stay as close together as we can, so nobody gets hurt.” Shiro tells them.

“I have altered Green’s lights to make them brighter, I will go in first.” Pidge says, as the group let her through to the front.

They make a ‘V’ formation and get ready to enter the atmosphere.

- **5 MINUTES LATER-**

The planet visibility was nonexistent, simple as that. Keith had accidently bumped into Pidge, and Hunk bumped into Keith. “Stay together, Shiro says. We need to be safe, Shiro says.” Keith says angrily through his teeth, annoyed by getting hit.

“Keith, stop sassing me.” Shiro annoying says from the intercom.

“I wouldn’t have to if I could see anything!” Keith sarcastically yells, earning a laugh from Lance and Hunk.

“Stay calm, Keith. Just focus on the soothing sound of my voice.”

“Lance.”

“Keith.”

Right before Keith said anything else, a loud thundering sound erupted through the clouds and brightened up the sky for a moment. Everybody stopped moving, not sure what to do.

Turning on their screens, Shiro spoke first. “Okay, everyone, stay calm. It’s just thunder, no lightning yet.” Everyone stayed silent, even Allura and Coran, and watched the sky.

“Should we just leave? I mean we can’t see and a thunderstorm is about to go down.” Lance said, his eyes not leaving the sky.

After a few minutes of no sign of any more thunder, Shiro looked at the group through the screen. “We should just head down to the ground.” Shiro told the group and moved his lion first, the other’s following behind.

They moved a little faster than they were before and soon made it to the ground, causing everyone to let go of the breath they didn’t realize they were holding. The ground looked like a dried-up desert. There seemed to be no sign of any plant or specie life for miles. They landed their lions in a circle, facing each other in case they need to be blocked from the storm.

“Should we get out and look around?” Lance spoke, looking at the abandoned looking planet. Shiro hesitated for a moment before agreeing with Lance.

Once everyone was out of their lions, they meet in the middle, Keith and Lance grabbing hands and holding them like they almost died.

“Hey.” Lance whispers quietly in Keith ear. “Long time no see.” Keith looks at him and shakes his head with a smile on his face, before looking back at Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge.

“This place looks very abandoned, I don’t think we will be finding anyone here.” Hunk says, turning around to look back at the planet.

“They could be somewhere else, but I could try to trace them though Green.” Pidge walks away to go back in her lion, Hunk following, then turns around right before going in. “I’ll tell you guys if I find anything.”

Shiro turns to Lance and Keith, who were crouched on the ground feeling the surface. “Can you guys walk around and see if there is anything out there? Like trees or something.” Keith and Lance nod their heads and begin to walk in one direction.

“You would think he would want us to stay together.” Lance tells Keith, when they are a few yards away from the lions.

“Well, there is no point in going out anyway, since Pidge is looking for signs of life anyway.” Keith looks at Lance, who nods his head in agreement. “We could practice sword fighting.” Keith laughs at how quickly Lance gets out his bayard.

“Oh, you are so on, babe.”

They sword fight each other for about five minutes, before a loud and bright flash of thunder is heard a few miles from them. They look at each other and silently agree that they should stop and pay attention.

A few more flashes of lightning are heard before Lance looks back at Keith. “We should head back, it seems like a thunderstorm is about to happen.” Keith nods in agreement and leads the way back to the lions.

When thunder echoes around them, after a few seconds, they look at the sky. Lance gets an idea and looks at Keith with a mischievous smile across his face. “Race ya.”

Keith takes his eyes off the sky to look at Lance and smiles back at him. “Oh, you are so on.”

They move to face the lions, preparing to run. “What will I get when I win?” Keith stops what he is doing and looks at Lance, crossing his arms and raising his brow in the process.

“What do you mean when _you_ win? I’m going to win.” Lance places his hands on the ground and glances at Keith, from his position and begins to laugh at Keith’s declaration. Keith does not laugh back, being as serious as ever, but moves to match Lance after not getting a verbal response.

Lance turns his head to look at Keith. “How about we decide after I win?” Keith just stays silent, pretending he didn’t hear.

When he feels Lance’s eyes, Keith just sighs and turns to him. “Ready?” Lance stakes his head and moves to face forward. “Set.” They dig their feet in the dirt, ready to go. “Go!”

They take off in a sprint, ignoring the sound of thunder all around them. Keith immediately takes the lead and glances back at Lance for a second, with a toothy smile covering his face, before turning back and pushing himself a few feet ahead. Lance was not having any of it. He was not going to lose to Keith. Lance knew that Keith was not going easy, so he just had to give his all.

Lance was about to pull all his leg muscles to the limit when it started to pour hard, causing him to slow down a little. He was immediately soaked, as was Keith, but got used to it and the wet ground beneath his feet then took off running faster.

              The thunder got so loud that Lance missed what Keith said to him in the headset. “What, Keith? I can’t really hear you.”

              “I said, is the rain slowing you down, pretty boy?” Keith practically yelled. “Wouldn’t want you to drown.” Lance ended up laughing at how childish Keith sounded, causing him to slow down a bit to catch his breath. He looked at Keith and saw that he was very much ahead of him and decided that he could stop.

              “You will regret saying that when I win, Kogane.”

              “No, I won’t, because I am going to win, McClain.”

              Lance was just about to defend his honor when a bolt of lightning touched down a few feet away from him. He stopped running and saw that Keith’s body was frozen. They looked at each other from a moment, before a few lightning bolts began to strike the ground around them. They noticed it was weird when they noticed how the impact didn’t blow them to the ground, but they didn’t want to stay long enough to see if it felt like on from Earth.

              “Run, Keith! Get to the lions!” Lance yelled as he ran to Keith.

              Keith turned and ran, after seeing Lance run in his direction, as lightning bolts strikes all over the place. Keith would turn his head every few second to make sure Lance was all right. They could barely hear the voices of Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro over the sound, but they could make out them telling to run. The lions seemed to be closer than they were, which didn’t help.

              Then it happened.

              When Keith turned to look at Lance, a lightning bolt struck Lance’s right shoulder. Lance never saw it coming, never made a sound, he just felling to the ground like a doll.

              It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

              Someone screamed Lance’s name, right as his body hit the ground. Keith could here his heartbeat in his ears, as Shiro told Keith to keep running to the lions, but he ignored him and ran as fast as he could to Lance. He watched for bolts, while keeping his eyes on Lance, and quickly made it.

              Keith slides on his knees, when he was close enough to Lance, ignoring the mud that covers his suit and hands. The smell of burnt flesh and hair hung in the air around Lance, making Keith panic.

“Lance? Lance?” Keith tried to wake him, but Lance’s eyes stayed closed, so he decided to quickly pick him up. He didn’t have time to check for a pulse or look at the wound. The rain was not helping either, making Lance’s body slippering in his already mudding hands, but Keith managed to completely pick him up and ran towards the lions.

**-15 MINUTES LATER-**

               Back in the castle Coran, Allura, and Shiro were trying to get the top of Lance’s armor off. The shoulder of the armor was completely burned off and his skin was bruised where the bolt came into contact. There wasn’t any blood, so they moved the top more down to his hips and everybody took a surprised breath.

A tree branch like scar went from Lance’s shoulder to belly button, to his front and curved behind his back, and across to his other collarbone. Little small lines like tree branches seemed to come from each of the three dark lines.

              Keith stood close, refusing to leave, even after Hunk and Pidge tried to get him to leave and change. He moved his hand to gently rub the surface of Lance’s scared chest. Everyone moved for Keith to stand directly in front of Lance.

              Keith placed both of his hands on Lance chest and wrapped them around, to hold him for just a little bit, and placed his head over his heart. “Oh, Lance.” He closed his eyes to listen for a heartbeat, faintly hearing one, and felt tears slide to his nose and down to Lance.

              “Keith, we need to put him in a pod now.” Keith opened his eyes to see Coran standing next to him, waiting patiently with a half-smile.

              “Sorry.” Keith wiped his eyes and watched as Shiro carried Lance to a pod. Coran hit the button that closed it and stood back to watch it shut.

Coran turned to the group and looked at everyone’s sad faces but went to Keith and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay my boy.” He turned to look at Lance in the pod. “He was not struck too bad, should be in there for a day or two. No need to panic.”

Keith turned to glare at Coran and crossed his arms, before walking up to sit in front of Lance. Nobody made a motion to sit down or go to Keith, which Keith was glad didn’t happen, and tried to hold back tears. Hunk must have seen Keith and announced quietly that he will go prepare dinner and everyone followed silently to do their own thing.

When Keith was finally alone he squeezed his chest tighter and put his head down, as tears fell like a waterfall down his face. He looked up at Lance for a second, before looking back down.

**-THREE DAYS LATER-**

“It has been three days, Coran, he should have been out already!” Everyone was in the room, waiting for Lance to come out a day later, watching as Keith threw a pillow he brought from their room across the room in frustration.

Shiro walked over and grabbed the pillow, so Keith couldn’t break something like he did a few minutes ago. Hunk and Pidge just watched from the side, as Keith basically fell apart in front of them. Allura stood silently next to Coran, who was working on the pod to see why Lance was a day late.

“Keith, just calm down.” Shiro says trying to make Keith stand still.

The past three days have been hell for Keith. He was not sleeping because of the nightmares that happened every time he shut his eyes or eating any food without getting nauseous. Hunk and Shiro had carried him to the bathroom to shower, after the second day. And when the pod didn’t open yesterday, Keith refused to leave the room to eat or shower, he was a total mess.

Keith glared at Shiro for a moment before returning his attention to Lance, not attempting to talk or move.

“Coran, any news?” Allura said after a few minutes of silence.

“Well, princess, it seems that the pod has to manually.” He looks from the pod to the group and lands his eyes at Keith. “Lance is perfectly fine and should have come out the day after the incident.”

Keith looks like he is about to yell but stops short when Hunk moves to place his hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Keith, he’s coming out. Don’t worry about it.” Keith looks at Hunk for a second and takes a deep breath, before moving in front of the pod to wait for Lance to come out.

Everyone waits in a line behind Keith, as the pod opens, and Lance falls into Keith’s arms. Keith immediately drops them to the ground and hold Lance close to him, placing his arms around his waist.

“Hey, Keith.” When Keith hears Lance’s voice, he loses it and cries ugly tears into Lance’s shoulder. Lance moves his arms to wrap tightly around Keith’s shoulder and puts his face in his hair, smiling.

“I love you, Lance.”

“I love you, Keith.” Keith pulls back to look at Lance and smiles at him through ears. Lance lets out a small laugh, as he moves a hand to wipe Keith’s cheeks. They look at each other for a moment, before Lance brings his lips to Keith’s in a kiss full of longing and love. When they separate from their kiss, they rest their foreheads together and close their eyes. 

“Mind if we just in, in a group hug?” The couple turns to look at Hunk and the rest of the group, before Lance reaches out to let everyone in. Everyone laughs and cries for Lance’s return, for a few minutes, then they stand up and agreed that dinner sound good right now. Lance and Keith decided to head to their room to change, before going to dinner.

When they made it back to their room, and Lance had shut the door, Keith slowly wrapped his arms around Lance’s shoulder and kissed him with so much love that he didn’t want to separate, but air was a problem. They looked at each other for a moment, before moving to change.

As Keith was putting on a new shirt, he looked over at Lance to see him standing shirtless in front of the mirror. Lance moved his fingers to around the lightning bolt scar, with no emotion on his face. Keith knew that he was thinking of and walking over to him, to stand next to him.

Lance looked up at Keith and turned his head to face him, before looking back at the scar. “It’s quite interesting looking, not going to lie.” Keith watched as his fingers danced on his skin.

“It makes you look like a tree or frost, whatever season you are feeling that day.” Keith said with a smile, looking at Lance, as they both erupt into laughter. Lance moves to grab a shirt and turns to Keith, both wearing smiles on their faces.

“Well, I feel like a tree right now. Strong and full of life.” Keith walks over to Lance and wraps his arms around his shoulders, as Lance wraps his around Keith’s waist. They stay silent with smiles on their faces, not wanting the moment to be interrupted, and leaned in for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was requested by Ren.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> Don't forget to comment if you enjoyed it or if you want something written.


End file.
